8 Hot IT Jobs For 2014

What IT skills and roles will be in demand this year? Recruiters share the scoop.

10 Jobs Destined For Robots

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Sorry, IT job-hunters: If you're hoping for surprising predictions about what 2014 has in store, you're probably going to come away dissatisfied. That's because it's unlikely there will be any seismic shifts that completely upend the technology skills, roles, and titles that employers want.

"There's nothing that I would say is the new 'hottest thing ever' " coming in 2014, said Jack Cullen, president of IT staffing firm Modis, in an interview.

Indeed, much of what follows should sound familiar. This could be a good thing. Earth-shattering predictions have a knack for missing the mark. (Apocalypse 2012, anyone?) So the job-market calls that Cullen and other industry experts shared with InformationWeek are more realistic and more useful if you're looking for a new position in 2014. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Big data experts. Yesterday's buzzword is tomorrow's hot job market. While the hype around big data isn't new, Cullen thinks actual hiring in the category will start to gain tangible ground in 2014. "The area where I think we'll see some pickup, that people are still trying to figure out, is this whole world around big data -- whether it's products like Hadoop or big data analytics" or other relevant skills, Cullen told us.

2. Business intelligence (BI) designers. Tom Hart, CMO of staffing firm Eliassen, offered another specific example within the big data universe: the ability to turn all of that information into stuff the executive suite, marketing, and other non-technical business units can actually understand and use. (PowerPoint achieved popularity for a reason, people.) Enter BI designers.

"There are plenty of companies that can help you to store data, build redundancy into storage, and normalize the data for efficient storage and access," Hart said via email. "But there's clearly a shortfall of talented developers that can help you to interpret and present the data in a meaningful way, in the form of executive-level or business-level dashboards, guiding the decision-making process through the intelligent discerning and representation of that stored data."

3. DevOps experts with cloud and mobility skills. We're cheating a bit here. IT pros with serious DevOps chops are in high demand right now, according to Kevin Gorham, recruiting manager at Hollister. That's going to continue in 2014; DevOps experts who build and maintain cloud infrastructure and mobile apps are sitting pretty in the labor market.

"If I have people with this skill set, I can call my clients and easily get several interviews set up for these candidates. They really are a walking placement," Gorham told us in an email. "They can command higher salaries, and I'll often get into a bidding war with my clients over these potential hires. Developers who are more of an engineer and can program and script in Linux -- not your just your run-of-mill admins -- are highly marketable, too."

4. Linux pros. Indeed, while "Linux" and "hot" don't often appear in the same breath, IT pros with Linux expertise will remain in demand in the coming year. In 2013, the "Linux Jobs Report" -- produced by Dice.com and the Linux Foundation -- found that three out of four Linux pros had received calls from headhunters in the previous six months. Meanwhile, 90% of hiring managers reported difficulties filling Linux positions.

Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, expects even more favorable conditions for Linux job seekers in 2014.

"Demand for Linux professionals continues to go up and represents a multi-year trend that is the result of Linux becoming more and more ubiquitous. It is the software that runs our lives, and we need more systems administrators and developers to keep up with the growth," Zemlin said via email. He attributes much of the demand to wider business adoption of open-source technologies in general, and added that the Linux Foundation will ramp up online learning and advanced training opportunities in the coming year to help meet demand. "If you're an IT professional looking for long-term career growth, there is no better place to be than working with open-source."

While I think demand for Oracle and SAP skills is probably flat at present, I disagree with your market share assertion. There are two primary markets for most of the cloud based apps. The first is small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). As these businesses grow out of Quickbooks, Peachtree Accouting and the like, they are tending to purchase cloud based apps like Intacct, NetSuite, Workday, etc. In most cases these SMBs are not large enough or complex enough to consider an Oracle or SAP solution....these solutions are just overkill for them. Neither Oracle or SAP have been particularly strong or focused in this SMB space in the past. This is a place where they are losing potential market share (assuming they want to play in this market), but are not losing existing market share. The second area are functions in larger companies like sales or HR that refuse to follow the corporate standards or have some unique, unsupported need. Cloud apps vendors play to this market because the apps can be used without IT involvement and without corporate approval. They also tend not to integrate with other corporate apps and they are certainly not replacing core Oracle or SAP installs in these situations. As before, its debatable whether this is taking market share or not. I would say its more of a market being created where one did not exist in the past and what we may find in a few years is that the cloud apps get replaced once the core ERP/CRM app implementation efforts catch up and can roll in these rebel or unsupported business functions.

I have challenged on this before for someone to show the proof that larger companies are really scraping their core ERP/CRM installs and replacing the technology with cloud apps. I just don't think the business case exists. And these companies are large enough that they can get the benefits of virtualization within their own data centers and using their own staff. They don't have to swap out apps to do it.

What is happening with cloud apps in the market place is much more complicated than most reports spell out. If people are going to comment on this, they need to stop making generic, blanket statements that are just not true and provide a proper analysis that gets to the real facts and to what is really happening in the market place.

Thanks a lot - you pointed out an important aspect of system administrator's job. When I was an engineer, I use to find out that most of my time were eaten by things like creating documentation, raising and closing troubleshooting ticket and answering technical queries from various parties. Sometimes I am not able to bear weight.:-)

In addition to these specific skills, companies need developers that take a holistic perspective on technology. They do not simply know one programming language or one skill. They understand how to work with different platforms -- desktops, mobile, cloud -- to name a few. They have to understand information management, security, and integration. Most importantly, they need to manage the relationship between technology components from how it impacts the business.

This is a good list, but I would add virtualization admin or virtualization manager -- the art of commissioning, managing and tearing down virtual machines. It's one of the fastest growing roles in the data center. And I would also suggest a new role is emerging, that of collecting and analyzing machine intelligence for the improved management of virtual systems. It's a big data job, not a day by day operational job.

Somedude8, I like your analogy. We do tend to get very bogged down in the nuances around terminology (especially we editors). I swear, I am still reading articles that discuss the "real" definithion of unified communications, which people started talking about 7 or 8 years ago. The meaning of the term is not what is important, it is the value of the actual thing to the user, or the pratitioner (or the spy!)

The demand for Linux skills is only going to increase. Microsoft's competing solutions are often very expensive, and Linux is known to be a lot more stable. It is making a lot of inroads into automobiles too, as several car manufacturers have used Linux for their infotainment systems; Android is popular in this space too.

Every system does need adminstration, my point is only the big companies can afford to have someone who only does that. At smaller companies, application guys like me just fill in for that. If you have something really heavy duty, you can always bring in a contractor for the couple hours of work you need. Implementing virtual server(s) is perfect example. Do you really need a full time guy when you only spin those up once in blue moon?

One of reason I love the IBM i5 (formally AS400) so much is it essentially eliminated the need for dedicated system operations type person, which was impossible in the mainframe MVS/370 world we migrated from. They made it so easy to do routine stuff, like apply patches and manage work in system. Not to mention fact you can't kill with a stick, you use servers for 7-10 years and routinely go over a year without even rebooting them.

Windows has come a long way in that regard, although they need rebooting far more often. The problem with Linux is it take a pretty knowledgeable person to administer, thus my comparison back to MVS/370 days. Linux (and it's core ancestor UNIX) is a fine rock solid o/s when it is running. It is just not completely obvious how to get it running to someone who is basically a programmer/analyst.

Do some of you out there work in 1-2 person shops where you do both Linux admin and app development? I'm curious to know.

If you account system admin on just uptime and performance then yes, as an admin you might not have a hectic schedule. But your Responsibility for documenting the configuration of the system and entertaining technical queries will definitely grow.

Don't worry, my friend - for sure we need system adminsitrators. Yes virtualization with KVM, vSphere, etc. is the trend and getting more and more popular. But the system administrator is definitely needed in the background. The difference is that, you need to possess more up-to-date skills, especially virtual server management and good understanding of cloud computing. The job will exist but you need to update your knowledge to get qualified.:-)

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